1. Field of the Invention
In general, the invention relates to media management applications, and, more particularly, to using a media management application to create media asset illustrations for media assets.
2. Description of the Related Art
Traditionally, music has been purchased at music stores or music departments of larger stores. A consumer will visit the music store or department and manually browse for albums or compact discs (CDs) of interest. After the consumer selects an album or CD of interest, the consumer proceeds to a checkout register to pay for the album or CD being purchased.
In recent years music delivery or distribution over the Internet has become popular. Due to the advances in efficient file formats, such as MP3 and MPEG4, the size of media files has become small enough to make their download via the Internet practical. Also, technological advances have led to higher-speed Internet connections and lower cost of memory. The combination of these advances make downloading media files, such as for music and videos, manageable and not too time consuming.
One popular approach to online music distribution is Apple Computer's iTunes® online music store. Consumers may use the iTunes® online music store to purchase music either as individual music tracks or in albums of songs.
Often, when a consumer purchases a media asset such as a music track, the media asset includes a media asset illustration (e.g., a computer graphic representing an album cover). Traditionally, album cover art has been used by music listeners to identify music albums by sight. The media asset illustration can be displayed while the media asset is playing, for instance, on the display screen of a music player. For example, the iPod®, produced by Apple Computer of Cupertino, Calif., allows a user to display a media asset illustration (e.g., album cover art) associated with a particular audio track while the track is playing.
Unfortunately, not all media assets have associated media asset illustrations. The reason for a missing media asset illustration can vary, but can include unavailability, file corruption, or accidental deletion. Alternately, a media illustration can be missing if the media asset is taken from a user's personal music collection (e.g., ‘ripped’ from a Compact Disk (CD).) Also, although it is sometimes possible to download media asset illustrations online, if a user does not have a network connection available, media asset illustrations will not be available.
Thus, there is a need to obtain media asset illustrations for those media assets that do not have associated media asset illustrations.